Perhaps Ker had confused the 75 translator monks with the 5 typist monkeys?
 
> ----------
> From:         Daniel Pearlman
> Reply To:     Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine
> Sent:         Friday, May 29, 1998 4:21 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: In Alexander's "Pound's Seafarer"
>
> Have I missed a couple of postings?  I don't know who this
> Alexander is or who the Ker is that he quotes, but the Ker
> quote seems naively anachronistic regarding the purpose of
> Bible translation in pre-modern times.  The primary criterion
> for early translators was faithfulness to God's *word*,
> literally, and therefore style and often target-language
> sense could go hang.  Remember the old story about the
> seventy-five (I think) translators who were each set to
> work independently to produce a translation into Greek
> of the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch)?  The result
> was that they all, without consulting with each other,
> produced word for word the same translation of the
> original Hebrew!!--proving, of course, the legitimacy of
> the operation, and thus promoting ecclesiastical interests.
>
> ==Dan Pearlman
>
>